Apr 7, 2007

WAY OUT WHERE THE DOGGIES BOWL, Wolfmangler - Dwelling In A Dead Raven For the Glory of Crucified Wolves (CD reissue Aurora Borealis 2007)

Back in print, so it's not quite as irrelevant to review!This here's Dead Raven Choir magistrate D. Smolken under the Wolfmangler moniker. Wolfmangler strikes me as a less-cartoony project, by the by, but no more slight than DRC. "Dirge For A Viking Asshole" had me singing "Cheree, Cheree...ooohhhh I love you" at 1/4 speed like a whaler in punker's clothing. The rest of the tracks are a variation on this plan, with mud-caked drums, a lonesome string, and Smolken's wartorn voice goading the huddled masses. The next-door-neighbor recording works especially well on the closer, "Star Winds." Its dry distance sells the solitude better than a metric ton of catherdral echo. Sometimes you just turn on the mic and let the floorboards tell the stories.It don't get much further from subtle, but oh how it works. That's heaviness in a nutshell, ain't it? We're having a second frost here in Mylanta, Georgia, so the crackle of frosty twigs this disc brought into my life is eerily apt. New Hampshire knows what I'm talking about. Wow, I'll probably never speak so highly of NH again.You want this.